“The sight of an achievement [is] the greatest gift a human being could offer to others.”
What I love most about the Olympics is that the games offer a wonderful opportunity to observe a concentration of human joy.
There is, of course, the reverence and inspiration we derive from watching athletes perform at peak excellence. Most of us know little to nothing about these athletes going into the Olympics, and the feature stories highlighting the trials and tribulations they overcame to reach that grand stage help bridge that disconnect. And when athletes achieve their goals — whether they know they've given the best performance of their lives or have won gold — they exude raw jubilance, wear wide smiles, shed tears of joy, throw their arms up, and passionately hug teammates and loved ones. The sight of such outbursts of elation is among my favorite experiences, and the Olympics delivers a succession of them across two weeks.
Yes, the Olympics also show the disappointment of those who fell short or suffered injury during their quest for perfection or gold. These moments remind us that, no matter how hard you try, success is never guaranteed and life can always throw unexpected curveballs.
The highlights of this year's winter Olympics in Milan for me was watching the US men's and women's hockey teams each win gold with overtime goals, a highly improbable and thrilling outcome, and witnessing the spectacular gold-medal performance of figure skater Alysa Liu, an athlete I hadn’t heard of two weeks ago.
Alysa and her father Arthur's American story struck me deeply. She became the youngest woman to win the US National Championships at age 13; then unexpectedly retired at 16 after placing sixth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She returned in 2024 and, despite great odds, reached the highest mountain in her sport on the ice in Italy last week.
Her father Arthur is a Chinese immigrant. He grew up in a provincial mountain village, and was among the student protest leaders at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Ultimately fleeing to the United States, he earned a law degree at the University of California and founded his own firm specializing in immigration and political asylum. He estimates he invested between $500,000 and $1 million in his daughter's skating career.
It's primarily because of Americans like Arthur Liu that I cheer for USA athletes such as his daughter — not simply because they are my fellow countrymen, but because I live in a nation where a man can still flee persecution, build a life from nothing, and watch his daughter stand atop the world in her sport. Her benevolent spirit and fearless grace on the ice, and her jumping for joy after delivering a career-best performance, was the most joyous moment I experienced watching the Olympics this year.
Once again, the Olympics delivered the gift of joy, reminding me that there is beauty and good aplenty in a world that too often appears broken, ugly and evil. This is not an “escape” from the dysfunction and suffering that surrounds us. It’s facing a fact that too many want to downplay or evade, that goodness exists, that human resilience and excellence are real, and that these are values still worth striving to live up to in our own lives.